Golf says its researchers analyzed the over-the-air TV networks and cable channels available to at least 80 million homes.

McCarley, a former NBC executive under the highly regarded Dick Ebersol, said that the 500-employee Golf Channel, launched by golf legend Arnold Palmer in 1995, was seeking to develop programming around golf and the golfing lifestyle and recently released a live-streaming application similar to one used by NBC for the London Olympics.

The channel's core live programming is the early rounds of PGA competitions on Thursdays and Fridays.

In December, it added the NCAA golf championships. Terms were not disclosed. The college rights were previously held by CBS, Turner, and ESPN.

The Golf Channel's first men's NCAA championship will be broadcast in 2014 from the Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan. This will be the first live college men's championship on television in 19 years.

The Golf Channel will televise men's and women's championships the next year from the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., the first live women's college championship on television in 17 years.

The Golf Channel's growth has come with controversy.

The independent Tennis Channel contends that Comcast unfairly distributes Golf to millions more subscriber homes than it distributes the Tennis Channel. Tennis is available on an extra-charge sports package on Comcast, limiting the number of people who can watch it.

Tennis won the argument to be seen in more homes on the Comcast system before the Federal Communications Commission. Comcast appealed the FCC decision; the case will be heard in a Washington federal appeals court in February.

"Golf is a great channel," Tennis Channel spokesman Eric Abner said. "But we have always said that if Comcast owned Tennis Channel and did not own Golf, which one do you think would be in 84 million homes "
Tennis is available nationally in 35 million homes, Abner said. "Part of the problem is getting into the homes so we can be rated," he said.

McCarley anticipates future growth globally -- Golf is available in 35 million non-U.S. homes -- and excitement around golf's return to the Olympics in 2016.

The recently released Golf Live Extra app is available only in Comcast cable-TV markets, such as Philadelphia. But the Golf Channel plans eventually to make it available to subscribers of other pay-TV services. Customers will have to authenticate that they are cable- or satellite-TV subscribers for access to the Golf Live stream -- as they did to access the NBC streaming of the Olympics.

"There were people for years who wanted to watch golf on Thursday or Friday but couldn't because they couldn't get to a TV," because they were at the office. Now they can.

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Contact Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or bob.fernandez@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @bobfernandez1.